TOYOTA AND CONI PRESENT THE 2018 WINTER GAMES
In Bolzano with the Toyota Mirai - the first hydrogen powered sedan – started the long journey that binds Toyota to the Olympic Italian Team
Toyota`s long journey alongside the Italian Team towards the next Olympics, began today in Bolzano, for the introduction of the Olympic Club for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.
Following the partnership signed last January, today's achievement is an important step for this journey, even longer, that binds Toyota to the National Olympic Committee until 2024.
Coni President Giovanni Malagò was present at the press conference together with the CEO Andrea Carlucci, where they drove the Mirai, Toyota’s hydrogen powered sedan, a symbol for zero emissions future mobility. Five Toyota Proace units were also present in Bolzano alongside with the Toyota Mirai, driving all the Italian Team athletes around the streets of this charming South Tyrolean city towards the press conference.
Giovanni Malagò, CONI president ““We’re really happy to start this new adventure with Toyota, an innovative brand who’s target is the constant improvement of its performances, just like athletes.
I had the opportunity to drive the Mirai, the example that best represents Toyota’s philosophy of moving toward a path of new mobility based on hydrogen solutions.
We started from Bolzano, the only Italian city with an active hydrogen refuelling station, I hope that in Italy new stations will be built in the near future.
We started from here, but we will surely go further.”
Andrea Carlucci, CEO of Toyota Motor Italia: “This first official appointment, by the side of the athletes preparing for the next Winter Games, represents for us an essential step, made even more important by the city we are in: Bolzano, a symbol of conscious use of alternative resources such as hydrogen (in fact here is based the first Italian plant producing hydrogen from renewable energies, and is active the first refuelling station at a pressure of 700 bar). With the Toyota Mirai we have accomplished a real revolution (and we will continue to do so), and just like the athletes who commit themselves daily, unreservedly, to achieve their goals, we have worked hard and obtained that the use of this resource could become a reality throughout Italy.”
“Now, thanks to the implementation of the “Directive for the Construction of infrastructures for Alternative Fuels (DAFI)”, the Italian Government has decided that by 2025 there will have to be built a sufficient number of refuelling stations where it will be possible to refuel at a pressure of 700 bar, in total safety, as on the Toyota Mirai. But this will really be possible only when Italy will update its obsolete technical regulations for the construction of refuelling stations, as required by the DAFI Directive, and by the decree putting it into effect in our country. Now our ambitions continue. We want to achieve annual global sales of at least 30.000 vehicles equipped with fuel cells (by 2020), thus reducing the global average of CO2 emissions by 90% by 2050 (compared with Toyota average of 2010). We count also on a reliable partner such as CONI to build a further more sustainable future”
The partnership with the National Olympic Committee represents an essential step for Toyota; a collaboration presented in March 2015 in Tokyo by Thomas Bach, President of the CIO, and by Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota, (https://www.olymp
